Chapter One

Today was just a wonderful day for Abbey Donne (nee Feine). She felt the warmth of the sun on her body, the thin cotton dress clinging to her lithe body as she stood there in the gentle breeze blowing off the shore a distance away. She stood in the backyard of their home, which was one of a cluster of houses that was part of the upmarket area of Santa Cruz on the California Coastline. Her husband of fifteen years, Clancy, had bought this house from his considerable inheritance after his father’s death. Her father-in-law, Peter, a retired architect, had suffered a stroke, and his mother, whom she never had the chance to meet, died when Clancy was just completing his school years.

House hunting had been both an exciting experience in buying their first home plus very stressful, as it took them five months plus viewing some forty-odd houses before deciding on this one. It was love at first viewing. It had five bedrooms, all en suite, and a beautiful, large kitchen with modern stainless steel fittings flowing out into the dining area and beyond it, the lounge. The yard was fairly large, with a decent swimming pool and a well-maintained garden at the front. They considered it their piece of heaven. Clancy would jokingly say, “This is our haven, our own place.” Needless to say, the kids loved it, too. John, the eldest, was fourteen years old, Sean, the middle child, was twelve years and Ruth, their baby sister, was eight years old and the true darling of the family. They loved the area, the house’s location, close to schools and the well-established town centre only ten minutes away. She also experienced an internal warmth of body, heart and soul as she internalized her fortunate disposition. It was a Sunday afternoon, her husband was out playing golf with his friends, and she was watching her three children, the two boisterous boys jostling each other as their baby sister tried getting into the fray as well. She was unable to resist the smile of contentment spreading across her face. It was not always so. Yes, her mind drifted back to the dark days when she dreaded getting up each day.

Her life was a tapestry of bright and dark colours interwoven, at times joined and at other times disjointed, but she was able to piece them together as best as she could from her memories and things heard from a variety of sources. All the wondering and worrying day after day from morning till night. Would the pain ever cease? It wasn’t physical pain, but a devastating psychological and emotional rollercoaster created by a series of harsh, heart-rending, gut-wrenching, tragic events that had compounded. These thoughts and emotions kept rolling through her psyche, similar to the waves continuously pounding the seashore.